How to Dispose of a Tea Party Imbecile, For Good

Bye Bye, Birther

Last week, we saw the demise of a right wing lunatic.

You may remember Bob Wagner, the Montana state legislator, for his appearance on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 in which he defended his special birther bill which would have forbidden President Obama from appearing on the Montana ballot in 2012.

Wagner was indeed riding high two years ago, swept into office on the 2010 Tea Party wave and happily making an ass of himself in the Montana legilsature, going on national talk shows with his nutty ideas, speaking at Tea Part rallies, sponsoring crazy bills (in addition to his birther bill, he tried to reintroduce the Gold Standard), and generally being an ass. But Wagner did not know that he would walk into a trap, in which he would be ensared and hoisted and which would end his political career. He would be unable to chew his leg off to free himself.

Like a good Tea Partier, Wagner voted against every single appropriation of money put forward by the legislature, including a bill that arrived on Governor Brian Schweitzer’s desk last April which contained grant money for local communities (including Wagner’s district), for things like sewer upgrades, fire department repairs, and the like.

Schweitzer–who is known to enjoy mixing it up with right-wingers–saw an angle. He noticed that Wagner had voted against the bill. So, Schweitzer used his “line item veto” power and selectively crossed out the funds that would have gone to Wagner’s district. Schweitzer did this to several legislators who voted against the grant bill, stating as he deleted the items that if Wagner and others voted against the bill, then their constituents must not have expressed much interest in getting the money.

But as you might expect, community leaders in Wagner’s district hadn’t even been aware that Wagner had voted against it. For when he voted against the bill, Wagner had been on a frolic of his own, and not representing the interests of his district. Wagner figured that the bill would pass anyway, and so he could flex his Tea Party biceps while knowing that Democrats and moderate Republicans would turn in sufficient votes so that the grant bill would survive.

But he hadn’t counted on Schweitzer calling out his bullshit.

When the folks in Wagner’s district learned of Wagner’s vote and of the consequent loss of funds, they were outraged. Wagner then tried to save face by suing Schweitzer, claiming that the item veto had been illegal. Well, that didn’t go over very well with the Tea Partiers who reside in Wagner’s district, because they don’t think Government should ever spend money at all.

So Wagner ended up in the headlines, first proudly decrying government spending, then being revealed as having denied his district important funds, and finally suing the Governor to try to get more government spending for his district.

Alas, caught in these crosscurrents, the flimsy hypocrite Wagner was beaten last week in his GOP primary, by a Republican moderate (or at least what passes for a moderate in Madison County, Montana) who used all of these points against him very skillfully and vocally.

I have driven through Sheridan every other day since the beginning of April this year. I cant believe such a nice town as that, would allow someone like Bob even on the ticket. Ray Shaw had a sign in Madison county every half a mile going towards Sheridan in both directions and plenty in town. Those people I think were rather shocked Bob was such a clown with their future. I am sure, they wont be doing anything that wild for years to come.

One of Birther Bob’s other preoccupations is the UN’s “Agenda 21.” He thinks the UN has a secret plan to destroy America with bike paths and public parks.

By the way, Wagner’s in Madison County not Beaverhead County where Dillon is. I don’t know whether or not Dillon’s Debby Barrett is worried about Agenda 21 or not, but she voted on a resolution to remove the United States from the United Nations.

Birthed bob gone, James Knox left the state with his business folded and tail between his legs, Derek skees soon to suffer enormous defeat in auditor race. The quality of legislation will no doubt improve next year but the comedy will surely suffer.

Debbie won’t resign. She represents the old world ranchers here in Beaverhead County. Moreover, as long as she is in office, she can continue to ensure that she gets the subsidies that many of the politicians here in Montana depend on.

NOT BIRTHER BLOB! Blob, we hardly knew ye! Birther Blod is a veritable walking BLOB of a cholesterol blob of a man! Which invites the question. Does Blob get to KEEP his hated gubmint health insurance that he was LOATHE to accept, or is Blob back on his own? WINGin’ it without health insurance? Good question!

Anyone know the answer? For you see, Blob famously and heroically announced that health insurance was for sissies, and that folks otter just do without, like he does, ’cause the model of healthy living is Blob himself!

I can envision a time in the near future when reality is gonna bite Blob right on the ass! And then, Blob won’t be walkin’ around town askin’ folks if they want to buy him a condom, but he’ll be askin’ folks if they’ll pay for his BYPASS surgery! And maybe a Rascal SCOOTER for his fat ass! And maybe some OXYgen too!

And THEN, we’ll finally see just how heroic this fat, lardassed, blubberbutt REALLY is! Think he’ll refuse all hated gubmint assistance at that time? ME NEITHER!

As Turner pointed out above, Birther Bob did not represent Dillon or Beaverhead County. We have our own poor excuse for a Representative – Debbie Barrett. Sadly, no one challenged her in the primary. Hopefully Turner can beat her in the General because she is just as hard right as Birther Bob. Sadly, she sticks to the shadows instead of courts the press so many have no idea just how wingnut she really is.

“We lost thousands of people,” Schweitzer said. “We injured hundreds of thousands of Americans and people from all over the world. We destroyed families all over the world and for what? To create a vacuum for Iran to attack their neighbors. That’s the kind of leadership we have in Washington, D.C., and I’m damn glad that Bush is back in Texas or wherever he is.“

Typical of Schweitzer, he giveth and taketh at once. He was dead-on right up to the point where he said …to create a vacuum for Iran to attack their [sic] neighbors. Iran hasn’t attacked anyone in 200 years. It is merely the demon de jure, and it is the Obama and the US military that will be attacking. He talking straight and buying in all at once.

Well its not like he is going to doom his national aspirations right from the start by pissing off AIPAC and telling the truth about Iran mark. This way he gets to bash on the unpopular wars and still court donations and avoid attacks from such organizations as the above. He can only talk straight so much and still be deemed electable.

He would be correct about Iran if he had said we created a power vacuum which Iran has filled and used to build its influence at the expense of its corrupt autocratic neighbors who also happen to be our allies and suppliers of oil, all of which would be deemed to be against the national interests of the US.

I follow that. Iran has no national interests of any importance, and anything it does to advance it own preservation is irrational. The US has national interetst but they are not defined, and when any other country crosses them, we get to attack.

The next question asked candidates how they would improve upon last year’s legislative session in Helena, which the question described as “unproductive, highly partisan and contentious, with too much attention to national issues and constitutionally controversial proposals.”

Wagner quickly countered the question.

“With all due respect… our legislative process was very productive,” he said.

“What people don’t report in the paper is all the bad bills that we’ve killed,” Wagner said. “That’s real progress.”

Mr, Tokarski seems to have forgotten Iran’s most recent war, less than 20 years ago, when Iran attacked Iraq and after hundreds of thousands of deaths agreedto a tie with the US backed Saddam. Of course we had to expend our blood and treasure to try to put the Saddan genie back in the bottle and eventually finish Daddy Bush’s project.

History as it is rewritten is always more interesting than the real events. The question here is who wrote this version you are reciting? Did it come from a high school text? That would be troubling, not that high school history has ever had much substance.

Iraq attacked Iran withing a very short time after the 1979 Iranian revolution and the overthrow of the US-backed dictator, Shah Pahlavi, who was widely hated by the citizenry. Saddam Hussein was at that time a US client, but there is no evidence he was acting on instructions. It is known that during that war, the US supplied weaponry to both sides, as if it wanted war for its own sake.

Around 1988 it appeared that Iran had the upper hand and was closing in. Atnjat time the US moved a naval fleet into the Gulf and began threatening. The US Vincennes shot down a civilian airliner under highly suspicious circumstances, and within a short time after, Iran backed down. The war ended.

Iran did not attack anyone, but defended itself from attack. Hussein had border issues he wanted to resolve, and likely felt that with US backing he had the power to do so by force.

TEA Baggers, Paultards, New World Order conspiracy theorists, sasquatch hunters, bithers, truthers, endtimes planners. these are basically all the same people. the fact that we elected them to our legislature is an embarrassment that only we can fix.

I didn’t vote for any of these fools. They were elected on a wave of out-of-state money from Koch Brothers and TEA Party front groups like Americans for Prosperity and American Traditions Partnership and the Chamber of Commerce. The corporations bought us the TEA Party legislative disaster thinking it would be better than main street democrats and republicans.